Race report by Gareth:
Race the train yesterday for 10 Lostockers in the latest chapter of this years road/trail championships.
A rare point to point race on the calendar, starting at the East Lancashire Railway station at Bury and finishing at Rawtenstall station, this is a 10 mile or so race, about 85% on trails with 770ft of elevation. You basically run uphill all the way lol.
Starting in a pretty ugly car park on the whistle of the 10:55 steam train from Bury (well, it being a train so it was obviously late & we started just after 11:00 🤣) the basic premise of the race is to try and beat the train to Rawtenstall. You normally get about 1hr 40 to do it, but that was cut down to 1:35 as it was late.
You could never describe it as a fast course, but it’s a really nice & scenic one once you get out of the car park 🤣. Following & criss crossing the River Irwell for long periods, through fields, loads of kissing gates, round Nuttall Park & Burrs Country Park, up steep steps & a few shortish sharp climbs all mostly on good quality trail with a bit of tarmac thrown in every now and again.
As ever these days, some outstanding performances from team green. Club superstar Janet successfully tracked down and passed the super speedy David Wilkes & Dave Parry to finish second female and first FV50! 👏👏👏.
David narrowly missed out on first MV60 but was still a great second in his age category. There were further tussles between Lostockers further down the field, Johanna & Gaz both finished within a few seconds of each other & managed to beat the train and I successfully overhauled them both, Gaz at the last gate 1/2 mile from the end when he was a bit goosed!
Don’t like talking about myself much on these reports …but.. I had a few “technical “ issues throughout the race…my timing chip came off in the first mile (thankfully someone behind shouted) so I had to run back and get it, then I was forced to bin my camelback as it was too loose and knackered to run with after 12 years great service 😩, and I was having to run with no arms as I was holding it in place! Then to cap it off my stomach was playing up & I had to find a quiet spot in the woods…you get the picture 😜, but that was fine as I had some toilet roll…in my camelback which I’d already binned..so I’m now minus one Lostock buff 🤣🤣.
Chris & Rachel Susan Hancock had a great battle a bit further back, swapping places towards the end until Chris eventually prevailed, but big shout out to Rach for being 3rd FV50.
Rachel Stevens ran a great race despite a nasty fall at Haigh Parkrun the day before 👊👊 and Mark Checkley really toughed it out for the last few miles despite also suffering from stomach issues. Well done guys 💚🖤.
Quick pint after the race before getting the train back to Bury from Rawtenstall for 5 of us. This race can bit a bit of a faff with all the different modes of transport involved & it does make for a long day but it really is a good event & has a nice feel about it.
Here are the results, well done everyone.
